Peace River (Rockland Ranch Series) (33 page)

Chapter 14

             
The evening of the last round as Isabel came out of her hotel room in her western skirt and boots, Slade spun his finger to indicate he wanted her to twirl for him.  She felt like a princess under his appreciative gaze as he said, “You're the prettiest cowgirl I’ve ever seen.”  He kissed her softly and held her in a long hug that she didn’t want to end. 

With his c
heek against her hair he said, “This is almost over, honey.  I truly believe it is.  One way or another we're going to be able to put this Judd mess to rest.  We’ll be able to go home and move on with our lives.”  He kissed her again tenderly.  “Then can we finally get married?”  His eyes had never been so green.

             
She pulled his head back down.  At length she answered, “I can’t wait.”

             
As he turned to go start getting his horse, she caught his arm.  Looking into his eyes again she said, “Slade, I need you to not think about Judd right now, or even about me.  I need you to focus on this rodeo.  Focus and enjoy this evening.  You’re going to become the World Champion All-Around Cowboy in a few hours.  Please don’t let these other things interfere with that.  You love to rodeo.  Love it more than ever tonight.”  She kissed him once more and then almost against his mouth, she said, “I’m going to.” 

             
And she did love the rodeo that night.  The peace of the night before was still in her heart, and she was able to relax and enjoy the evening, though she was more attentive to everything around her than ever before. 

Slade
bulldogged in his second fastest time ever.  Then he and Rossen roped their steer in 4.1 seconds, their own personal record and fast enough to put them over the top into first place and make Rossen the new World Champion Team Roper. 

             
Slade missed spurring his saddle bronc out, which didn’t matter because two seconds later he was thrown and received a no score.

             
Isabel wasn’t sure what the all-around standings were exactly, but she realized with that no score, if Slade was to become the next World Champion All-Around Cowboy, it was now dependent upon how he did on his bull. 

             
Tension began to mount and in spite of her prayers and the blessing of the night before, her stomach tied itself in knots.  She fidgeted all the way through the tie down roping and the barrels seemed interminable.  Finally, the bull riding started.  The other cowboy who was Slade’s only real competition for all-around made a decent ride and Isabel knew that if Slade no-scored or got a low score, he’d place second.  She wasn’t even aware she was chewing her fingernails until Treyne leaned over and gently pulled her hand from her mouth and said, “You’re gonna draw blood.”  He smiled at her and she put her hands back into her lap.  Of course Slade’s ride would be the last bull of the night.

             
She could see him below her, putting his bull rope on a huge brindle bull.  Rossen was there beside him, helping him, and taping his hand and wrist.  She tried not to think about it, but she kept remembering that bull ride in Salt Lake City that had ended with him nearly being killed. 

Finally,
completely at a loose end, she couldn’t stand it any longer.  As he climbed onto the chute to stand over the bull, she stood up to walk up the stairs to pace.  Stepping over Treyne and Ruger, who stood to let her pass without taking their eyes off of Slade, she made it to the stairs and had climbed several steps when suddenly the piece in her ear crackled to life. 

             
Special Agent Gray‘s mild voice instructed, “Isabel, I need you to turn around and calmly walk back down the stairs to the hidden gate.  Let yourself through, and go down to the room and lock the door.  Do it now.  There will be agents right behind you.  Go now.” 

Strangely
, she was more nervous about the bull ride than about this latest development.  She hoped Gray had had the presence of mind to turn off Slade’s earpiece.  As she turned to go down the stairs, she noticed the bearded agent coming down the stairs right behind her and was relieved to see that Slade was indeed oblivious and focused on the bull beneath him. 

             
She made it to the hidden gate at the bottom of the stairs and pushed back the yellow drape to reveal the latch.  Opening the gate, she went down a short flight of stairs to the arena floor level and glanced back at Slade.  Their eyes met for a split second that lasted an eternity, then suddenly her world turned upside down. 

Just a
s she made her way into the tunnel she was hit violently from behind and knocked to the ground.  Stunned, she turned, pushing her hair out of her face, trying to figure out what was going on.  The bearded agent had slammed into her.  As he put his head up, without the tinted glasses, she was horrified to realize it was no agent, it was Denzel Judd!  Now that they weren't hidden by the glasses she would know those mean eyes anywhere. 

He ha
d dyed his hair and grown it out, and grown the beard and she hadn't even had an inkling.  The last months had aged him years.  He looked awful.  He was snarling at her as he hauled her up to begin dragging her brutally down the dirt alleyway that led to the bowels of the building and the pens that held the rodeo stock. 

                                                        ****

              Slade settled onto the bull’s back, being careful to keep his feet up and forward.  He took his wrap with the end of his bull rope and pulled himself toward his hand.  This bull was huge, almost filling the chute.  He had his seat and looked up to signal he was ready and instantly realized something was wrong.  The moment he glimpsed Isabel below the hidden gate, his gut knotted in fear.

             
“Isabel!”  Her name escaped his lips just as she was knocked to the ground from behind. 

Th
at same instant the bull reared up and slammed into the panel in front of him, smashing his feet and legs and nearly hitting him with its head. Rossen slapped him hard in the face and hissed, “Marsh!  Focus!  Now!” 

Mentally hauled back to the fact that he was seated atop 2000 pounds of rodeo
bull, he thought to himself,
Eight seconds.  That’s all.  Just eight seconds
. 

He instantly nodded for the gate, letting the instinct o
f years of experience take over as the bull exploded out of the chute.  Violently it bucked and spun, his body automatically counter-balancing and adjusting, his subconscious knowing exactly what the raging animal would do next.  It plunged left for two spins and then went right, whipping erratically down in front as it kicked wickedly out the back, lashing to the side and plunging into another even tighter spin followed with a bone-jarring reversal. 

It whipped its head so far back around that its horn smashed
Slade in the thigh before it plunged its head between its front legs again in another mighty kicking buck.  At that point, everything began to blur.  It seemed he rode for a lifetime before hearing the horn. 

Finally! 

With the whistle, he brought his free hand down to release his wrap as he fought to stay in the middle of the bull’s back.  Free at last, he timed its stride and sprung off and to the rear, almost landing on his feet in the dirt.  Up instantly, he whirled, trying to find the bull, and ducked out of its way as it spun to come back after him.  His world was a kaleidoscope of bull, clowns and officials while he was trying to orient himself in the arena.  In the background was the deafening sound of the crowd and the announcer.  The fact that he had just won the world title never crossed his mind.  

             
Realizing he was across the arena from where he'd last seen Isabel, he tried to gauge whether or not he could beat the bull across.  The bull made the decision for him as it came racing down the dirt, scattering bull-fighters and officials in its wake.  It was a deadly game of dominos as man after man jumped up the fence when the bull pounded past. 

Desperate to get to Isabel,
Slade waited until after the bull went by, then sprinted across the arena.  Halfway across the bull spotted him and it was a race to the death with Slade winning by one stride.  Reaching the alley gate, he went up and over as the bull smashed into it with its massive head.  Two seconds later, as it took off back down the arena after an official, Rossen jumped down from the chutes and went up and over the gate after him.

              The Rocklands and Dante had been so intent on Slade’s bull ride, they didn’t even realize something was wrong until he and Rossen went flying over the gate.  Looking around they were mystified about the whereabouts of Isabel until they realized the hidden gate was open and there were two people standing below it, one of whom was putting a pair of handcuffs on the other. 

                                                        ****

              Judd had caught a handful of hair where he was dragging Isabel by her left arm and her head was pulled back and to the side.  She struggled to try and keep her feet and couldn’t see where they were going or what was going on behind them.  When she saw the door to the secure room as she was dragged past it, helpless to try and lock herself in, she began to pray fervently. 

Judd was snarling and swearin
g at her as they made their way with her stumbling at his side, trying to loosen his hold.  It felt like forever, but it must have only been a few seconds because she heard the crowd go wild back in the arena after Slade’s ride.  They sounded strangely far away.  At some level it registered that he must have made it safely through. 

             
She could hear shouting in the alleyway behind them and shots rang out.  It was an eerie mix of normal gunshots and the peculiar whistle of a silencer that reverberated in the iron tunnel and seemed horribly close to them. 

The bucking horses in the pen Judd dragged
her past began to mill around nervously.  Through all of this her earpiece remained strangely quiet. 

             
Repeatedly she tried to reach her gun, but from this position she couldn’t even reach her pocket.  Finally, she jerked her hair out of Judd’s grasp and was able to see what was going on behind her. 

Five men and
Keary were in a running fire fight in the tunnel under the arena.  One man was down, back near the entrance to the tunnel, and the others were either trying to run and shoot, or were trying to take cover behind the upright metal I-beams protruding from the outer wall.  In the melee, it was hard to tell who were FBI and who were criminals.  As she heard a bullet whine past her to clang wickedly against the steel tunnel, she assumed the ones aiming at her and Judd were not the agents. 

             
Judd picked up the pace to a stumbling run, and at one point she accidentally tripped him and they fell headlong.  As he dragged her back to her feet, she realized in his other hand he too held a gun. 

             
She heard a loud clank back in the tunnel and felt a fresh surge of fear as she realized they were running up the same tunnel the pickup men turned the bulls into after they were ridden.  As if to reinforce her fear, Special Agent Gray’s usually calm voice rang in her ear, “Those of you down in the tunnel, there’s 2000 pounds of angry beef pounding down your back door!  Get out of the way!” 

             
Isabel looked back and if there was any question as to which were FBI, it was cleared up immediately as three of the six figures left the shelter of the I-beams and raced across the alley to climb the fence on the other side.  Two of them made it to safety as the bull raged down the lane, but he caught the third one half way up the fence and tossed her high into the air with his horns.  Hardly seeming to notice the woman he’d flipped so violently, he then lowered his huge head and kept on coming up the alleyway. 

Still looking back,
Isabel began to scream frantically at Judd, fighting him like a wildcat, as it raged closer.  The thugs in the alley realized too late and before they could react, the beast was upon them.  It hit one without even pausing, knocking him down to run right over the top of him, and caught the second one with his horn.  The bull threw its head angrily and sent him flying like a rag doll right over the nearby fence and into the pen of bucking horses beyond it.  They shied violently, and circled their pen like a living wave, the man disappearing under its crest.  Even in her panic Isabel felt sick. 

             
Not waiting to see more, she turned from the sight of the crushed bodies to tear at Judd’s hands, almost feeling the bull’s breath as it bore down on them.  Steeling herself for the impact, she pleaded, “Please God, help me!” 

             
As Judd dragged her past another pen next to them, a long-horned roping steer hooked a horn through the rails, catching him in the side.  He stumbled, and lost his grip and she cried out in relief as she lunged desperately for the fence, trying to climb as fast and as high as she could.  Her feet tangled in the length of her skirt and in complete panic, she pulled herself to the top of the fence by sheer arm strength even as the bull knocked her feet to the side as it slammed into the fence she hung from.